There used to be a joke going the rounds about the relationship between doctors and a patient. When the patient asks for treatment, the doctors reply: “This is a time for mind over matter. We don’t mind and you don’t matter.” It may not be very funny joke, but it makes the point that many doctors have very poor people skills and frequently do not really care what happens to their patients. The notion of doctoring as a caring profession is just another of those urban myths. The majority are in the game for the money and high status. They want the maximum revenue with the minimum effort. Yet, there is another side to the joke. There has long been real scientific evidence of the so-called placebo effect. Put simply, this occurs when a patient given a fake medication or an ineffective substance gets better because he or she believes… Read More…